


Mixing Oranges with Reds

by ide_cyan



Category: Good Wife (TV)
Genre: Gen, Ice Skating, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 21:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ide_cyan/pseuds/ide_cyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kalinda Sharma has never put on a pair of skates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mixing Oranges with Reds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mosca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mosca/gifts).



> Spoilers up to season 3, episode 11: "What Went Wrong".
> 
> My thanks to my beta reader, MargueriteM. Any errors I made in subsequent edits are my fault alone.

If you could have found traces of Leela Tahiri's past, there might have been, tucked away in a relative's attic, an old duffel bag containing brittle clippings from the press coverage of the Battle of the Brians, colour pictures of Elizabeth Manley biting into the silver in her fuchsia dress, and a ringette jersey, spattered in faded bloodstains, adorned by a hand-drawn number 99 across the back.

That, however, was in another life.

 

***

 

It was Elsbeth Tascioni who brought skating into Kalinda's life.

 

The germ of the idea was planted at a seasonal mixer organized by Eli Gold for various business executives, lobbyists, lawyers and politicians all part of his network of Chicagoan power-brokers. Representatives from Lockhart/Gardner had been invited, though few of the associates and none of the clerical staff were in attendance. Diane Lockart was there, and Kalinda understood from the glances exchanged that this event had been arranged with her blessing; however, Will Gardner had sent his regrets and declined the invitation. Kalinda had come at the personal request of Eli, and she suspected him of harboring ulterior motives for her inclusion, but he was being coy about it. She didn't press the matter, but when Vanessa Gold, his ex-wife, arrived unaccompanied, Kalinda guessed she had narrowly missed out on a extempore plus-one vetting mission, and made herself unobtrusive, to avoid an embarrassing acknowledgement of their prior meeting.

 

Servers circulating through the room offered a selection of hard ciders from a new local producer. Kalinda accepted one and wondered if Will was drinking in the usual bar tonight. A wide view of the cityscape from the floor-to-ceiling windows of the reception hall showed the tops of the buildings reflecting the golden hues of the sunset as the lights on their facades came on to fill in the lengthening shadows.

 

Alicia Florrick showed up before full dark, also unescorted. Kalinda made her way toward her, trying to keep the tension out of her gait, but not to appear overly friendly.

"Hey." She smiled apprehensively at Alicia, who wore the pearls tonight, against a palette that complemented the orchard-themed décor; she'd had time to go home to change after appearing in court.

"Hey." Alicia smiled back. "Thanks for the notes. You were a lifesaver, again."

"You're welcome."

"I'm meeting Diane. We'll talk later?"

Kalinda nodded.

"Try the cider," she called, as she wished for the right words, the bridge-building subject over which to reconnect with Alicia. Alicia had started talking to her again since the incident with her daughter, but though the freeze-out was over, and something like mutual respect as human beings reinstated, there seemed to be no real opening for camaraderie, just a self-protective, cultivated indifference. Instead, Kalinda noticed another pair-bond emerging: as Alicia mingled among the other guests, she and Diane seemed to weave a pattern that brought them together more often than simple chance would have, and lent them opportunities to make introductions on each other's behalf.

Diane had found herself someone to mentor after all.

I could still go drinking in commiseration with Will, Kalinda mused, as she found herself making excuses to get out of smalltalk with party guests, a few of whom she knew too much about, and others she didn't care to get to know socially.

"Can you believe there's no cheese?" a middle-aged man asked her over his hors d'oeuvre.

 

The music was congenially kept at a background noise level; the chattering guests were louder. A few people over, David Lee had casually struck up conversation with a redheaded businesswoman who kept twirling the ring around her left annular. Kalinda overheard her laugh when he offered her his card.

"No, I'm not looking for a divorce, thank you. I just spilled motor oil on my hand this afternoon and can't seem to clean it off."

"Oh, I'm sorry! But keep the card, please. Can I find you some help for that?"

"Do you know where the ladies' room is?"

"I can show you," interjected Kalinda, smiling helpfully, with an apologetic glance at David Lee, who raised an eyebrow in a microexpression Kalinda read easily. She pointed the way for the other woman, and walked alongside when she accepted Kalinda's directions.

 

"I saw some olive oil at the salad bar, next to the cider vinegar. Have you tried that?"

"Do you think it would help?"

"Worth a try," Kalinda said.

 

"Are you from Lockhart/Gardner, too, or are you here with someone else?" asked the woman, as she read the business card David Lee had given her before dismissively tossing it into her purse.

"We work at the same firm, but I'm here at Eli Gold's invitation. Kalinda Sharma. Pleased to meet you."

"Oh, I know Mr. Gold! Elsbeth Tascioni, from Gosset, Harper & Long."

Kalinda Sharma shook Elsbeth Tascioni's grease-free hand.

At the bar, she located the bottle and poured some of the oil into a small stemmed plastic glass. They headed to the washrooms, located at the end of a corridor off to the side of the reception. The din diminished noticeably as they crossed the door into the carpeted powder room where a woman was concentrated, staring at the mirror, trying to reattach a hair extension that had come unstuck from her weave. Into the washroom proper, they stopped at the sinks, and Kalinda held Elsbeth's purse and suit jacket while she poured the oil between her fingers. After about a minute of rubbing, the olive oil had begun to work loose the engine grease.

"That's wonderful!" She grinned, holding up her glistening left hand, and looked directly at Kalinda. "I could kiss you!"

Kalinda considered the thought, locked it away in the back of her mind, and redirected the conversation.

"Did you have car problems?"

"No, thank heavens! I prefer to leave engineering matters to others." Elspeth tilted her head, as if the idea of her doing car maintenance were absurd, but then seemed to remember. "It must have been on the hose of the pump handle at the gas station. I think it's high time I put on winter gloves."

"There is snow on the forecast for later in the week."

"Yes, finally! I love the season, don't you?"

"There _is_ something special about it," said Kalinda, with equanimity.

"It's getting to be cold enough for outdoor rinks to go up. I love the fresh air. Being at the office or in court all day, I find it so much better to go outside for sports, and there's obviously no chance for outdoor ice skating in the summer. Don't you find?"

"I haven't actually got an office. I'm the in-house. There's a lot of driving involved."

"That's ironic." Elsbeth considered Kalinda thoughtfully.

"You say you skate?" Kalinda had never thought she'd see an ice-skating lawyer.

"Yes! Do you?" Elsbeth Tascioni's eyes sparkled with the joy of the proselytizer given an opening.

"Not in a lifetime." Kalinda Sharma had never put on a pair of skates, but suddenly, she thought, why not?

 

***

The invitation came early in the morning, on a relatively slow day at Lockhart/Gardner during which it was possible for her to clear her afternoon schedule for a few hours.

Kalinda drove north out of the Loop on Lake Shore Drive, past the harbor, the golf course, the snow-covered beach, continuing on Sheridan, and, after it veered through Loyola University, she kept on straight through onto Devon. Then she turned north again on North Western Avenue. It was the middle of the day, and the parking lot at Warren Park stood nearly empty. Kalinda heard Elsbeth Tascioni's car engine still clicking as it cooled in the winter air.

Elsbeth stood by the boards in well-maintained but long broken-in white figure skates, practical leggings and a figure-hugging short coat, a flowery scarf around her neck, waiting for Kalinda.

"Hi! Did you forget your skates?"

"I forget where I put them! I heard they rent them out here."

The park had only hockey skates whose blades had seldom seen the grinding wheel for rental, and Kalinda's arches protested the loss of her boot heels as she laced up, feeling awkwardly, uncharacteristically weighed down, though having remembered to bring socks to go over her stockings and cushion her feet. She stood up, noticing suddenly the feeling of height that skates gave her, not quite like high heels, but equally precarious. She left her boots in a locker.

There were a few children learning to skate with their mothers, and one apprenticed to a young father, some teenagers obviously busier taking photographs of themselves on their smartphones than skating, but the rink was huge, and the park was beautiful, and the ice didn't look too uneven on the ground, so she stepped over the edge in her rented hockey skates and kicked off experimentally.

Elsbeth had skated to the other end of the ice, turned, and was coming back with her arms extended, which she then hugged to herself, going into a basic two-foot spin. It was beautiful to behold, and a few children clapped. Kalinda looked at her admiratively.

She skated forward, joined Elsbeth, and they spent the next hour practicing.

Kalinda slipped and fell twice. Elsbeth helped her up, with a smile that was not laughing at her. She told Kalinda she had begun taking figure-skating lessons some months back, but that no-one who knew her had wanted to join in.

Kalinda's breath came out in a cloud. She caught it, paused a moment, and made a decision.

"Can you help me to find figure skates? I'm going to need a new pair."


End file.
